What were the various forms of revenue settlement adopted by the british in india? how far do you think these settlements have a bearing on the current agricultural scenario in india?
 

Prangya,

The various forms of revenue settlement system adopted by British in India are as follows:

Zamindari System - Under this system, the Zamindars (or the landlords) collected the profits and rent from the peasants or the cultivators who cultivated on their farms. Zamindars in turn paid the revenue collected form the cultivators to the British government. That is, the zamindars fulfilled their obligation to pay the rent to the British government by collecting huge rent form the peasants.

Mahalwari system - Under this system, the authorities entered into settlement with the village community where they held land in common tenancy or with the landlords. Herein, land assessment was done and the revenue was charged on the ‘net produce’. This system was initiated by Holt Mackenzie.

Ryotwari system - It was a system of direct revenue collection from the cultivators. It was introduced by Thomas Munroe, the Governor-General of Madras. It was different from zamindari where the revenue was collected by zamindars. In ryotwari, the cultivators, were recognised as the owners of the land and they had to pay about half of the produce as land revenue.

These systems of land settlement led to backwardness of agriculture. As under these systems, hardly anything was left with the farmers as savings and for further investment and rent was collected from the cultivators irrespective of their economic condition or the level of production in that particular year. This implied that the peasants were subject to poverty and misery, while the Zamindars and the British Government prospered at their cost . 

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